Taiwanese Americans Will Gather by the Thousands to Protest Against U.S. Unfair Treatment of Taiwan's President and Vice President.

Business Editors & International Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2000

On Nov. 4, 2000, Taiwanese Americans will gather by the thousands across the nation to protest against the Clinton/Gore Administration.

The Taiwanese Americans hope to vent their disdain at the U.S. Government for not allowing the Taiwanese leaders any freedom while they separately stayed in Los Angeles en route to Latin America last August and September.

When President Chen Shui-Ban stopped in Los Angeles on Aug. 13, he was confined to his hotel quarters, and was restricted from meeting the press and members of the Congress. He was also not allowed to greet the welcoming crowd of 400+ outside of the hotel. Vice President Lu stopped in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, before going to Latin America, and in San Francisco on Oct. 1 before returning to Taiwan. Both times she too was forced to stay in her hotel room, while a private reception in her honor was being held in the hotel's ballroom. Lu was also forced to cancel pre-arranged meetings with the executives from Hewlett Packard and Cisco Systems.

Many suspect the Clinton Administration yielded to pressure from the People's Republic of China, which considers Taiwan a renegade province and is not at all willing to see Taiwan recognized as an independent nation. Chen and Lu won the popular election last March, ending a 50-year rule of the Kuomintang (KMT). The pair was especially frowned upon by Communist China because of their pro-independence leanings.

"We tried very hard to convince the government to give the same treatment to Taiwan's President and Vice President as it would for leaders of other countries," said Li-Pei Wu, a prominent leader in the Southern California Taiwanese American community, and also a chairperson of the "Taiwanese American 11/4 Action Committee," an ad hoc consortium of various Taiwanese American associations. "When all else failed, we felt that a protest is the last resort to get our voices heard."

"Before the Taiwan question is resolved, the U.S. should be neutral," said Dr. Simon Lin, an anesthesiologist and president of the North America Taiwanese Medical Association. "However, the Clinton Administration's actions speak to the world that it agrees with Communist China's claim over Taiwan. This is unacceptable, and we must try our best to persuade our government to hear our side of the Taiwan-China conflict."

The protest will take place outside the Federal Building in Westwood, Los Angeles. Other participating cities include New York (at Time Square), San Francisco (Federal Building), Kansas City and St. Louis. The protests are scheduled to take place at 11:00 a.m. and end at 1:00 p.m.